Shirley Temple

Considered the most popular child entertainer ever, Shirley Temple is, according to entertainment critic Alan Sepinwall, “perhaps the best example of a child star who came out the other side sane and used her fame for a great second act.”

Shirley Temple was born to bank employee George Temple and homemaker Gertrude Temple on April 23, 1928. During Shirley’s early childhood, the family resided on 24th Street in Santa Monica, and later moved to a larger home on 19th Street in Santa Monica.

Shirley was born at Santa Monica Hospital, where her mother stayed for ten days after the birth—standard at the time. The hospital opened just two years earlier and was the first modern medical facility in the city. Her birth certificate is signed by the hospital’s co-founder, William Mortensen, a beloved local doctor who began his career making house calls to Santa Monica families.

As the youngest in a family of boys, Shirley was her mother’s pet. From birth, Mrs. Temple had entertainment aspirations for her daughter. She played music near Shirley’s crib and styled her hair in ringlets inspired by silent film star Mary Pickford.

Once she joined Fox Studios, Shirley’s image was carefully curated. Family portraits such as this were taken by studio photographers, and images of Shirley playing with children in her neighborhood were staged and disseminated to the press. One Santa Monica contemporary recalls tourists knocking on Shirley’s door and asking her to come out and dance for them—requests she often obliged.

As early as 1932, four-year-old Shirley was recognized in the local Santa Monica Evening Outlook under the headline, “Little Girl Hits Big Time,” for her roles in short films and for her first feature-length film, “The Red-Haired Alibi.”

One of Shirley’s earliest public appearances, at the Fox Criterion Theatre in Santa Monica, was a benefit for those unemployed due to the Depression. Will Rogers also participated in the benefit and the two performed an impromptu duet.

Shirley’s breakout came in late 1933 when she was chosen to play the daughter of James Dunn’s character in “Stand Up and Cheer!” for Fox Film Corporation. The two sang “Baby Take a Bow” together. Upon its release in 1934, audiences were smitten with Shirley’s charm and the novel pairing of a diminutive child with a grown man.

It was during this performance that Shirley wore the famed red and white polka dot dress with its layers of petticoats and exaggeratedly high waist, making her appear even tinier than she was.

This image shows an adoring mother and her child, but also a professional and her client. Shirley’s career became her mother Gertrude’s full-time job. She filled the roles of acting coach, occasional costume designer, hair stylist, chauffeur, and chaperone. Shirley was too young to read, so to learn lines, her mother read Shirley’s scripts aloud instead of storybooks.

Shirley credited her mother for raising her to successfully navigate the pitfalls of early fame. She said, “There are two themes to my story: the great love I had for my profession and the great love I had for my mother.”

With the success of “Stand Up and Cheer!”, Shirley’s Fox contract was extended and she appeared in films such “Little Miss Marker” (1934) and “Bright Eyes” (1934), in which she sang what became one her most famous songs: “On the Good Ship Lollipop.”

The dress she wore to perform “On the Good Ship Lollipop” measures just 18” tall. The scene was filmed aboard a DC-2, which was designed and built by Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica.

As a valuable asset to Fox, Shirley was courted with a doll collection, her own custom bungalow on the studio lot, and a team of nineteen writers devoted to her projects. Every detail of her life—from brushing her teeth and images of her bedroom, to her studio-organized birthday parties and on set tutoring—was shared with the press.

Temple’s stardom was so immense that in 1935, just a year after her breakout performance, she received an honorary Academy Award—the first given to a child actor—and was invited to preserve her handprints in cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

Though known to the world as America’s Sweetheart, Shirley described herself as a tomboy. One of her favorite toys was a slingshot, which she used to shoot Eleanor Roosevelt in the rump at a barbeque in 1938.

Police and the FBI fascinated Shirley. She developed her own “police force” at Fox to enforce rules of being a good citizen within the studio community. Santa Monica-based entertainment photographer Albert Bresnik took this photo of her with marksman Sewell Griggers.

At the height of the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1939, 25% of the country was unemployed.

Temple became a symbol of optimism for a suffering nation—and it was her responsibility to always display a happy face. President Franklin Roosevelt dubbed her "Little Miss Miracle" and praised Shirley for her ability to lift the spirits of everyday Americans, noting that her films gave people a temporary respite from their troubles.

Shirley’s closest playmates were the two little girls who served as her onset doubles. Here she plays with one of her stand-ins, Mary Lou Islieb. Note that the two play with games and a toy clown rather than the immense doll collection curated for Shirley by the studio. She did not enjoy dolls, but often posed with them for publicity purposes.

With Temple’s breakout stardom came the appropriation of her lucrative image on unauthorized products. In particular, Temple’s mother was dismayed at the non-alcoholic “Shirley Temple” cocktail, as she disapproved of the association with bars and liquor.

Morris Michtom of the Ideal Toy Company approached Fox to create a doll in Shirley’s likeness. Michtom had been successful marketing the first “Teddy” bear, naming it after President Teddy Roosevelt. Fox agreed and granted doll rights to Ideal.

This successful endeavor resulted in a range of products, including a line of dolls featuring costumes from Shirley’s films, dresses, accessories, children’s books, sheet music, and toys. With the runaway success of these products, Shirley’s licensing income soon rivaled that of her acting contracts.

The respite from work was short-lived, as Shirley and her family both missed her previous success. She took several roles from 1940 to 1942 that positioned her as a budding teen with romantic interests. She also helped with the war effort by visiting soldiers and volunteering at events such as the Santa Monica Rotary Club’s war bond drive seen here.

In 1943, she was recruited by David O. Selznick to appear in more mature roles with some success. However, her career shift from child to teen actress challenged audiences, who resisted seeing Shirley in adult situations.

In 1945, when 17-year old Shirley announced plans to wed, she anticipated a quiet ceremony, but O. Selznick seized the opportunity to reinforce Shirley’s adulthood to the nation by staging her wedding as a media event.

Hollywood's Wilshire Methodist Church was swarmed by fans and members of the press eager to see "America’s Sweetheart" in her wedding gown. This was Shirley’s view when she exited the church as a new bride.

Following her marriage, Shirley continued to star in films such as “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer” (1947), with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, and “Fort Apache” (1948), which was released just months after the January 30, 1948, birth of her first child, Linda Susan. Strain grew between Shirley and her husband John Agar as he became dazzled by show business and embarked on an acting career of his own, leading to their divorce in late 1949.

In 1950, Shirley took the first real vacation of her life, traveling to Hawaii with her young daughter. There she met Charles Alden Black, of the Del Monte Foods family. After the initial attraction, she was thrilled to discover Black was unfamiliar with her career and knew nothing of Hollywood. They married less than a year later. On her wedding day, at the age of 22, Shirley announced her retirement from film and took the name Shirley Temple Black.

Shirley embraced her life as a homemaker and mother, giving birth to son Charles, Jr. in 1952 and daughter Lori in 1954. Her marriage flourished through relocations to Washington, DC in 1952, Los Angeles in 1953, and finally to the Stanford, CA area in 1954 where the family made their longtime home.

Though a fulltime homemaker, Shirley was heavily involved in charity work and entrepreneurial projects. She served on boards for companies such as Walt Disney and supported organizations like the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

She returned to entertainment in 1958 with a fairytale television series for children titled “Shirley Temple’s Storybook,” which ran through 1961. In conjunction with this series, Shirley conceived a new round of merchandising, including the re-release of licensed items from her childhood career.

Shirley’s lifelong interest in politics and civic service led to a congressional run in 1967. Though unsuccessful, the effort raised her profile in Washington. Impressed by Shirley’s knowledge of global issues, Henry Kissinger recruited her as the Representative to the United Nations General Assembly under President Richard Nixon.

She was appointed the United States Ambassador to Ghana in 1974 by President Gerald Ford. This was followed by her appointment as the first female Chief of Protocol for the United States in 1976 by President Ford and later by her appointment as United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1989 by President George H. W. Bush.

In 1972, Shirley was diagnosed with breast cancer and made the pioneering move of publicly discussing her experience in a 1973 McCall’s article, which brought awareness to the issue.

Shirley opened up to the public again through her autobiography in 1988, which was hailed by critics as a refreshingly honest account of her life. Shirley Temple Black passed away in 2014 surrounded by family and loved ones.